Toward a Faith for Modern Man

Abstract

moral chaos of our civilization, modern man stands in desperate need of a faith which will release his spiritual energies for significant living and guide him to the realization of his spiritual destiny. It is Christianity's conviction that the Christian gospel is relevant to this basic need of modem man's predicament and that when the fundamental theological principles of this gospel are clearly stated, the reasonable person cannot fail to see both the relevance and something of the adequacy and validity of the Christian philosophy of life. I herewith submit a statement of twenty basic theological principles of the Christian gospel out of which we believe an adequate faith for modern man can be fashioned, because it is a faith which provides for man's fullest creative response to the challenge of life, calling for the fulfillment of his spiritual possibilities. By such a faith we therefore believe that our civilization may be saved from the destruction which to many of our most thoughtful and sensitive minds seems at times to be almost imminent. We believe: 1) That there is an ultimate or supreme Reality in the universe and that this Reality, which we call God, is the creative source of all goodness, truth and beauty. 2) That there is only one ultimate Reality, and that the true and the good are therefore two aspects of one reality and can never be inconsistent when properly understood. From this it follows that all good has a common characteristic which is determined by the essential nature of the Supreme Goodness, and that all truth is ultimately one, and that, therefore, the need for coherency is basic in man's ntellectual grasp of truth. 3) That the human mind is intrinsically related to this supreme Reality, and that personality is therefore the highest category we know in the light of which to understand and interpret the nature of supreme Reality. We think of this supremely important reality, therefore, as essentially personal. It is the creative fountainhead of all personal values and has an eternal stake in their creation and realization. 4) That every human being is incommensurably valuable and eternal in nature. This is the basic meaning of the biblical doctrine of the divine image in the human heart. 5) That a free fellowship of mature Christlike personalities is the goal of the process we call nature, and that, therefore, each person should treat his fellow man as an absolute end and never as a mere means to the realization of selfish ends. 6) That the human mind possesses an inherent capacity to attain an increasingly adequate and true knowledge of ultimate Truth, while yet inevitably always falling short due to human limitations and an imperfect world. Man's vision of Truth is, therefore, as it should be only if it is continuously growing and expanding. 7) That there is something radically wrong with man, that sin (missing the mark) characterizes human life at all levels of development, and that human life and thought therefore stand always under the basic need of being redeemed, individually and socially. 8) That all exclusively man-centered programs for attaining the good life (humanism, societism, nationalism, universal humanity, scientism) are doomed to failure, for they * Professor of Religion at George Pepperdine College, Los Angeles, California. Readers of this statement of twenty basic Christian principles are invited to make comments for publication in the Forum section of the Journal.